


Black Haired Boys and Stupid Choices

by AstorOlogy



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bullying, F/M, Highschool AU, I have no idea how to tag this???, Light Angst, M/M, Minor Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Minor Allura/Lance (Voltron), Minor Angst, Minor Character Death, My tags are super oddly specific, NSFW, Shiro (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Slow Burn, adam is terminally ill, allura is gifted, coran's a teacher??, hunk is gifted, keith is hard of hearing, kwrjbgajrkebgaekbatk, lance has brain damage, later nsfw content, matt is gifted, pidge has cerebral palsy, shiro is also an amputee, shiro is gifted
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-02
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:35:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22987204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AstorOlogy/pseuds/AstorOlogy
Summary: Shiro joins a school for the differently-abled and gifted after an unfortunate accident. There, he meets a ragtag group of kids all thanks to Matt Holt, a friend he grew up with... plus Keith. The "weird art kid who can't hear shit" who Lance pesters every day.After their high school experience, Shiro falls in love and follows Keith wherever the universe will take them.This is marked NSFW for later chapters.
Relationships: Allura & Lance (Voltron), Allura/Lance (Voltron), Allurance - Relationship, Keith & Shiro (Voltron), Keith/Shiro (Voltron), Minor or Background Relationship(s), sheith
Comments: 2
Kudos: 32





	1. Takashi Starts Monday

"Takashi, you've been gifted free tuition at Blade City High for the Differently-Abled and Gifted," his mother says, humming softly to herself. Takashi and his brother both look up from their dinner, where everything had been otherwise quiet.

"That's... a pretty long name," Ryou states, then purses his lips, "and I thought Blade City School of the Deaf was long," he said, earning a light elbowing from Shiro.

"It's fine," Shiro says, then looks up to his mother, who had her eyebrows raised at the two of them, "isn't that the school that Matt and Katie go to? I bet their dad pulled a few strings," he joked, earning himself a couple of smiles, even from his otherwise stoic father. Everyone in the Shirogane family enjoyed the Holt's, even if Katie was a little strange to his traditional parents.

"Yes. I think it will be very good for you to go. Speaking of, Matt called earlier today during your group. He says you start Monday, but I believe it's too early,"

"Mother-" Shiro starts, having to stop himself from just telling her it was fine, and that he'd go. He was tired of being babied. He'd missed enough school to be held back, and he wasn't necessarily willing to go back to the place everything bad had happened either, "I've been cleared to go back to school. Please, have faith? I'll stay home on days I don't feel well,"

"He'll be fine," his father starts gruffly, then clears his throat, "he's a young boy. He's bounced back just fine, let him go," he says, his wife eyeing the both of them a moment before nodding slowly.

"Alright. Takashi starts Monday, then. And your prosthesis is finally on its way from the ALTEA corporation," She relents, and Shiro's eyes go wide. Their insurance didn't cover that. And, knowing his family, he got the best of the best so he could still be 'himself'. But, he couldn't speak on it aside from a weak 'Domo arigato' given the look his mother levelled him with.

Monday comes quick. Shiro barely got up on time after not sleeping most of the night and, had to rush out the door with the rest of his omelette and rice in his mouth as his father scowled by the car. Ryou snickered at him from the front seat as Shiro climbed in the back and buckled up.

"Arigato, arigato," He says quickly after swallowing, his father climbing into the driver's seat begrudgingly. If he still had another hand, he'd have his hands together while he bowed at the man. Being late normally got him a couple of stern words and a glare that could kill. Today, his father just acted as though the dog had dragged in the mud. A blessing, but not for long if he was late again.

"Shush, Takashi. It's your first day," the man says, buckling in and heading right out, "your mother told me to give you a pass this week,"

"Yeah, unlike me," Ryou teases, who Shiro knew for a fact got dragged out of the shower this morning. If not for all the yelling, he would have slept peacefully at five-thirty am. Still, he gets a whack on the thigh from their dad for that.

"We'll be on time, thankfully. You start in twenty minutes, Takashi. You'll need to get up with Ryou during the winter, however," their father explains, while Shiro nods along. It was weird being in a car anymore. He had a horrible sense of dread whenever he saw them, even though he didn't yet remember everything For that he was thankful. Very thankful.

Now, with the school? He wasn't expecting to be in the 'bad' part of town. It was a nice school, sure, but it was certainly an old building in the lower-middle-class town. He'd been here once before when he'd been a kid, and his father had gotten mugged. That day in the hospital wasn't fun, and his parents had since told he and Ryou not to go there unless they had to... unless visiting Katie and Matt, but even then their parents would have rather the Holt's to come to them.

"There you go, Takashi. Please be careful. Kolivan's stepson goes here,"

"... Father, he's not a dangerous kid. Just wronged," he said, getting out before his father could get a comment in. Poor kid, too. Getting bullied and shuffled through foster homes even though he shouldn't have been. But, no time to dwell. He pushed open the doors, and stepped inside a bustling common area.

"Shiro! Hey, you made it!"

"Matt! Hey!"


	2. So Many People, So Little Time

“You already know Katie, but they want to be called Pidge. Uh, at lunch we’ll see Lance, Hunk, Adam and maybe Keith,” Matt says quietly as they roam the halls. Shiro needed some help when it came to navigating the admittedly complex school. There were so many rooms, he could barely keep up.

“Pidge? Huh, alright,” Shiro nods, then frowns slightly, “I’ve heard of Keith. Why wouldn’t we see him?” he asked, earning a shrug from Matt as he pointed out the astronomy class.

“Keith spends a lot of time by himself. He’s a loner, you know? Lance calls him emo,” the other boy chuckled, then feigned a surprised gasp, “and he’s a junior, just like you, Shiro!”

“Hey- hey. I’m an honorary senior, you know. Only held back because of this,” he gestured to his lack of arm with a small chuckle. He was glad Matt wasn’t being so delicate, it was a nice change of pace. “But hey. Maybe I’ll be able to introduce myself some time. You said he takes some of the same classes, right?”

“Oh, yeah. I don’t know which ones, but he takes them. Oh, there’s your ASL class by the way. Still want to take it?”

“Yeah of course. It’ll come in handy- wait, didn’t you recommend it?”

“Technically all of your ideas come from me,” Matt teased, looking up at the bell, “we can finish the tour after we eat, then we’ll get you in clubs,”

Oh god, clubs.

Lunch was actually kind of jarring for Shiro. Normally he’d go off campus to escape the bustle, but considering it was his first week, he wasn’t allowed to leave. So, instead, he sat at a packed lunch table: his new group of friends at one end, and strangers at the other. A spot at the end of the bench was left empty, right next to the Lance kid, where he only assumed Keith would normally sit. Shiro hummed, though, offering a smile as Matt made to introduce him to everyone.

“This is Lance, Allura - they’re dating - Hunk, Adam, and obviously you know me and my kid-sibling Pidge,” Matt listed off, quite pleased as he looked to Shiro, then back to the others with a slightly devious smile, “he’s too good for us, though. Might just head off to sit with the jocks instead,”

“I’m not,” He groans, rubbing at the back of his neck, “Besides, I’m not that great playing with one hand. Maybe track, though,”

“Why can’t you be like the rest of us and eat big macs? Jesus,” Matt laughed, earning himself a fake-hurt look from Shiro, who was busily finagling his bento open one-handed, “Hey, maybe we’ll take you to the McDonald’s after classes. Mini-celebration,”

“Dads driving me around for now,” Shiro commented, which Matt groaned at. Of course, he got that response - Shiro’s dad was a hard-ass, “maybe I can convince him to let me walk back or hitch a ride. Shouldn’t be a problem,”

He was busy eyeing his food after that, trying to figure out why his mother had insisted on packing his lunch this morning. He was just about to start thinking about how easy he could have bought lunch here when the table shook, and someone plopped down.

“Mullet,” he heard Lance slur, looking over to see the young man ruffling long black hair with both hands, “see? This is the weird art kid,”

Needless to say, Lance’s hands earned some smacks and a couple of expletives from the other boy.

Also, needless to say, Keith was the most beautiful boy Shiro had ever seen.

“I’m Shiro,” he said, blinking when Keith seemed to ignore him. He was about to feel butt hurt, but Lance tapped Keith’s shoulder and pointed helpfully at Shiro, who perked and tried again, “I’m Shiro,”

Keith strains, opening his mouth before shutting it again and furrowing his brow. The common room was too loud, and his hearing aids had long been put away. They were old, and were starting to do more harm than good.

“I can’t hear you,” Keith says, loud enough to make a couple of people flinch. Oh. Oh, he must be deaf. Shiro looks at him sheepishly, and the others fight back laughter, “sign? Or something?”

Sign? He could try… Shiro frowned lightly, setting his fork down to lift his hand, recalling the alphabet he’d learned to sign out his name for Keith, who’s eyebrows lifted in understanding.

“Oh, I’m Keith,”

Keith looked back down at his tray, seeming uninterested. It was a small blow to Shiro’s ego, but he could manage. He was pretty good at making friends, he’d get there.

And try he did. Over the weeks, he got pretty close with everyone else… just not Keith. Keith was a mystery, who could ignore you just by looking away and pulling out his hearing aids. But god, did he just do something to Shiro.

It was a blessing and a curse that he happened to be partnered with Keith in a project for their Astronomy class, which meant they’d have to study together. Hopefully, with the bonus of getting to know the boy a little better.

“I was thinking Casseopia or Auriga,” Keith offered, voice muffled enough Shiro almost missed what he said, “everyone’s gonna do the zodiac constellations or Orion,”

“Yeah, you’re probably not wrong,” Shiro worried his lip in his teeth, looking back to the list of constellations they could choose from. “Delphinus and Lupus would be good, too,”

“I like Delphinus more,” Keith says, nudging Shiro’s hand out of the way to drag his highlighter across the name, “there, settled,”

“Okay, cool. When do you want to get together to outline our paper?” Shiro asks, perky as ever. Keith, however, just raises his eyebrows.

“We can call anytime,” he deadpans, pulling his phone out to wave at Shiro with, “no one needs to leave their house that way,”

“You’re right - but I think, maybe, for some things we should talk it out in person?”

“Then we’ll meet in the library,”

Okay. Shiro could settle for that. Dragging Keith out of his shell was definitely going to be a process, but in the end, it’d be worth it. Hell, maybe he’d even manage to get to properly hang out with the kid some time. Whenever Keith joined in group festivities, he did it after some serious begging, and then he was normally in his little world the whole time anyway.

“Can do,” Shiro smiles, putting his contact information in Keith’s phone when it was handed over, “there, now you can pester me any time,”

“More like you can pester me any time,” Keith says, and Shiro can’t tell if Keith is legitimately peeved or teasing him, and can’t ask because the bell cuts him off, “see you later, Shiro,”

And there he goes, trudging out of the room and shrugging on his backpack.

“Ouch,” Shiro comments, sitting there a minute longer before packing up, and heading to his next class. Hooray for Junior-level algebra.

After school, Shiro is sitting among his peers - some he doesn’t know, but Matt, Pidge and Adam are all there. It was his third GSA meeting in the new school, and it was pretty fun actually. They already had a fundraiser and some events lined up, and today they were just going over what changes to the student handbook they were going to suggest to the board.

“We could make sure that LGBT students are treated the same as others, especially during prom and other dances,” Adam piped, leaning into the table a bit. If Shiro was being honest, he’d taken Adam for a straight guy at first. But it turns out he’s actually bi, and pretty sweet for the most part. Was it possible to have two crushes at the same time? “There’s been some shitty things going on. Remember last year?”

“Oh, god,” Matt groans, rubbing at his forehead and nodding, “yeah, that was a lot of fun. We’ll have to change that,”

“Wait, what happened last year?”

“Oh, that’s right. Well, there’s a reason two seats are empty,”

“Keith and James used to be in the club,” Pidge cuts off their brother, cradling their left arm to their chest, “but they got booted from the homecoming dance. James broke up with Keith after the school called home about a stupid little kiss. His parents didn’t like the fact his son was gay. Keith hasn’t come back since,”

Shiro’s heart sunk. Those two poor kids - and he heaved a sigh before nodding in consolation.

“We should get that fixed, then. We can’t continue to have students treated that way,” Shiro conceded, wondering briefly if he could ever convince Keith to come back to the club again. It’d take a miracle, probably, “we should get the counsellors in on it, see if they have any input,”

“Great start, then. Now, let’s look at those stupid cell phone rules,” Pidge jokes, earning a laugh from everyone.


End file.
